WHAT'S UP, DOC?

2 May, 2018

I
had a craving for carrots yesterday.

CARROTS?

I don't crave carrots!

I crave donuts, or pancakes, or chocolate, or freshly baked
bread, or any sort of pastry, but not -- carrots.

I had a hard time with carrots as a kid. I couldn't eat
them. I don't mean I didn't like them, I literally could not eat raw
carrots. I would chew and chew and chew and get the carrots just like a cud
in my mouth, but I simply could not swallow them.

I could eat, and did enjoy, buttered cooked carrots (the
operative word being "buttered," of course!) but it was years and years
before I was able to swallow raw carrots.

I did, in time, learn to eat raw carrots and especially liked
carrot-raisin salad. Why I suddenly had a craving for it yesterday, I
don't have a clue, but I knew we had a big bag of carrots in the
refrigerator and so I got them out and made myself a big batch of salad.

I shredded a bunch of carrots, added a handful of golden
raisins and then, as a last idea, also shredded up an apple that was
starting to look tired. Then I added a bit of mayonnaise and some
orange juice and mixed the whole thing up.

The thing about carrot-raisin salad is that you can't eat it
right away. It has to sit long enough to let the flavors blend.
But within an hour, I had a small bowl and it was just what I had been
craving. I had so much left over that we had it for dinner last night
and I finished off the bowl. Craving satisfied!

I heard
this morning that it was the 35th anniversary of the big earthquake. I
immediately thought it was of the Loma Prieta quake, which hit the Bay Area
hard and since I am San Francisco centric, I didn't realize it was the
anniversary of the Coalinga quake in Southern California. The
Loma Prieta quake happened in October of 1989, which is not to dismiss
Coalinga, but I didn't have that experience and the report of the
anniversary set me to remembering that terrible day in October.

I was
working for The Typing Company, which was in an upstairs office in Davis and
suddenly we felt a little jolt. I knew that if we were feeling
a jolt, it must have been a big one in the San Francisco area.

Walt was
working in DC, Ned was living with Marta and working at a video store in
Oakland, Tom and David were at the World Series game in San Francisco, Jeri
was working in South San Francisco and only Paul was here in town. I
immediately called Marta and found out that yes, it was a big one but she
and Ned were fine.

I left work
right away, worried about what happened to all those people at the ball game
but by the time I got to the car they were reporting no serious problems at
the game, so I wasn't worried about the kids.

But the
earthquake happened at the time Jeri would be driving home from work, from
South San Francisco across the bridge to the east bay and there was a report
that part of the Bay Bridge had collapsed (but no details about how bad it
was...not as bad, as it turned out, as I feared)

What actually happened was that a small section of the bridge
collapsed onto the bottom section of the bridge. One person was killed
but that was by stupidity Nobody was killed by the collapse, but
someone decided that their car could jump over the break, tried it, and fell
onto the bottom deck and was killed.

I finally heard from Tom and David, who had gone home with
Walt's brother and his wife and would stay in with them that night.

It was 10 p.m. before I heard from Jeri. The Bay Bridge
is built in two sections which meet at a tunnel on Treasure island, which
was built for the International Exposition in 1939 (where, coincidentally,
my father met my aunt, who introduced him to my mother). After the
exposition, it became a military base and though the base closed in 1991, it
was still an active military base in 1989.

The collapse had taken place on the far side of the island,
so you could not get from San Francisco to the east bay. They had to
take all of the cars, lined up bumper to bumper across the bridge, off at
Treasure island, where they could turn around and head back to San
Francisco. It took hours. Jeri called in tears from a pay phone.
She was alone in the city and didn't know where to go. All the lights
in the city were out. I thought of a friend she could stay with and
gave her the phone number. She was able to find the house and spent
the night but it was a bad night for her, and so hard for me to be in Davis
with almost my entire family scattered across the country and unable
to do much to help any of them.

You realize how helpless you are in moments like that.
I felt like a mother hen whose chicks had all scattered and I couldn't get
to them.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Despite the neglect we give it each year, this lovely bush continues to
bloom.

I'd love it if you'd leave a comment!

Apparently someone decided I should approve comments before they appear
-- it wasn't me! --
so if you don't see your comment, it's because it's
awaiting approval. Sorry 'bout that!